272. An elephant sitting still (2018)

 

Country: China

Directed by Hu Bo

The first and last full length film of Hu Bo, who took his life shortly after he completed it at the age of 29, is the most bleak, gloomy and depressing film you can imagine, not offering even a single smile, a single ray of joy in the four hours that it lasts. However, it's not as much hopeless and pessimistic as you think: even if it's not a way out of misery the four leading characters of the movie never stop to fight, never stop their agonizing struggle to live, no matter how damaged and poisoned are themselves by the ultra hostile social environment. With a strong documentary feeling, a superb cinematography with a camera that comes so close to the characters that we feel that they breath a few steps away from us and a   brilliant acting from everyone "An elephant sitting still" is a masterpiece of the modern Chinese cinema, more real than the reality itself, makes you wondering how the absence of any emotion can be so emotional, how the absence of any hope can be so hopeful

 

You can watch the full movie here:

https://youtu.be/xWCkZS5r7Tg

271. A fugitive from the past (1965)

 

Country: Japan

Directed by Tomu Uchida

In my opinion one of the most underrated movies in the history of cinema "A fugitive of the past" is easily among my five most favorite Japanese films ever made. Although you would fully understand this statement only if you watch it, I would try to identify what makes this movie so great apart of it's fascinating plot, the amazing black and white photography or the captivating music score : it's this raw realism, depicting the misery of post war defeated Japan with unparalleled accuracy, that occasionally and unexpectedly cracks with a way we rarelly see, revealing a terrifying opening to the fragility of the human condition itself, where the subconscious, the guilts and obsessions, the fear of supernatural but mostly the limitations that mortality sets, define our existence and fate. 

270. Throne of blood (1957)

 

Country: Japan

Directed by Akira Kurosawa

So many years passed since I watched this famous Akira Kurosawa's film and sometimes I m not sure how I will feel if I watch it again. I m wondering if it aged well or if today would look a bit tired, a bit pretentious or simplistic. But then I remember how much I liked this film, how intense the film was: mad, raw, poetical, captivating, haunting. How I was thinking about it weeks after I watched it and how some moments of it still are vivid in my memory after all this time. Finally, I let my doubts aside. Films of this caliber would never get old. No matter your age, your country, your state of mind, they gonna absorb you from the first second to the last

269. Hope frozen (2019)

 

Country: Thailand

Directed by Pailin Wedel

Although I m not impressed by the way that the theme of the film is presented and unfolded nor from it's visual power, I still think that Hope Frozen is really interesting to watch, as it steps in a territory that all of us we are curious to explore, as it poses questions that all of us want to answer, as it connects all of us in a deeper philosophical, existential level, as it evokes our emotion no matter who we are. A documentary about life and death, about dealing with pain, about our refusal to accept our fate, but also about love and about dreaming big

268. After the curfew (1954)

 

Country: Indonesia

Directed by Usmar Ismail

One of the most famous and celebrated movies in the history of Indonesian cinema "After the curfew" is without doubt the masterpiece of Usmar Ismail, a pioneer artist who, as a film historian quoted, was the first Indonesian director that used film as means of expression and not simply as a way to make money. "After the curfew" is a movie with very few weaknesses, surprisingly fresh almost 70 years after its production, depicting with simplicity and bitterness the reality of the post war independent Indonesia, where the dream of a new, bright society and the ideals of the revolution buried under the corruption and the privileges of the few: a reality so universal that we feel related with, no matter from which part of the planet we are watching the film

267. Prisoners of conscience (1978)

 

Country: India

Directed by Anand Patwardhan

One of the rare documentaries about the brutality of Indian state against the leftist protesters and political prisoners during the 70's. Having a high historical value, the film depicts with simplicity the violence imposed by the establishment against everyone who dared to demand better conditions of lives for the poor, real democracy and justice. Anand Patwardhan does here what he continued to do his whole career: real and raw political cinema taking always the side of the vulnerable

You can watch the full movie here:  https://youtu.be/RHFaEybyvNA

 

266. Bona (1980)

 

Country: Philippines

Directed by Lino Brocka

Bona is probably the last really great film of Lino Brocka and it combines everything that made me to love his cinema that much: the not exaggerative melodrama, the powerful silent scenes, the well balanced raw realism, the camera that goes down to the slums, the political way that his storytelling is connected with the realities of Filippino society, the redemption of the end when the victim takes at last a revenge. 

You can watch the full movie here: https://youtu.be/8UakbxtNhO4